Is "film" a dirty word around here?

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MrNutt

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Just wondered as I'm wandering into the field of 'retro' SLR's due to having to spend my D90 budget on a fancy steam washing machine and figuring that I'd actually like to "learn to shoot properly" rather than end up reliant on the machine.

These are my humble beginnings (sorry about the picture from a camera phone!)

Zenit.jpg


The Camera body is a Zenit EM (Olympic model so I'm guessing its from 79-80?) and the two lenses are the standard Helios-44m and a Hanimex 80-200 to add a bit of versatility to the equation.

So far I've been having a lot of fun with what seems to be the AK47 of the SLR world, anyone got any tips or pointers?

/braces self for suggestions of along the lines of "burying it", "heathen" or "whats film?" ;)
 
Film, a dirty word? Look close enough and you'll find a whole section of TP dedicated to it. It's where the cool people hang out;)
 
MrNutt said:
Just wondered as I'm wandering into the field of 'retro' SLR's due to having to spend my D90 budget on a fancy steam washing machine and figuring that I'd actually like to "learn to shoot properly" rather than end up reliant on the machine.

These are my humble beginnings (sorry about the picture from a camera phone!)

Zenit.jpg


The Camera body is a Zenit EM (Olympic model so I'm guessing its from 79-80?) and the two lenses are the standard Helios-44m and a Hanimex 80-200 to add a bit of versatility to the equation.

So far I've been having a lot of fun with what seems to be the AK47 of the SLR world, anyone got any tips or pointers?

/braces self for suggestions of along the lines of "burying it", "heathen" or "whats film?" ;)
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Hi There

I had one of these as my first foray into SLR's, but more like 1976.

Have you tried it out yet?, mine ended up with a faulty shutter.

One other thing, the built in meter is rubbish, either make sure you always point it at the ground when metering (very easy to underexpose by picking up too much sky) or better still get a hand held meter and look up incident light metering.

You will learn loads doing it this way, and you film cost will be lower as you will have less dud pictures.

Also seen a few mentions on here of people buying out of date (but perfectly usable) film very cheaply.

HTH

David
 
MrNutt said:
The Camera body is a Zenit EM (Olympic model so I'm guessing its from 79-80?)
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Same as my first camera by the way(y) From what I remember (and if it's anything like my old one) the "Olympic" means it has the aerodynamic properties of a discus so that you can throw it slightly further when it plays up :LOL:;)
 
cheers for the replies folks! the shutter's working perfectly and the shop even said that its covered by 3mth warranty as they serviced it before selling it! :)

it was astonishingly good value, body, helios lens, 2x films & strap for £30.00, loads of fun for peanuts!
 
MrNutt said:
due to having to spend my D90 budget on a fancy steam washing machine
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Dose your local river not have a handy rock then?:shrug:


I'll clear off quick now before any of the ladies of the forum find this thread :exit:
 
My first slr was a Zenith B in the early 70s. No built in meter and I didn't have a separate lightmeter either. I did it all by guesswork. I went digital in 98. In 2005 I started film again, with a Fuji 670 120 film rangefinder, 2 OM1s and an OM2, and an Olympus Trip 35. In the past few months I've put a film through a Lomo (with disappointingly good results), and I currently have films in a Holga, a Zorki, and the aforementioned Zenith B which I still have. I've also got a Horseman LX-C 5x4 but I haven't got round to using it yet. So there's plenty of life in film here. Even if there isn't much life in us.
 
Film - in answer to your question no its not a dirty word. I will give you another thought though

"Give a photographer a digital camera but he will still have to point it in the right direction"

they do not do it for you you know!
 
MrNutt said:
cheers for the replies folks! the shutter's working perfectly and the shop even said that its covered by 3mth warranty as they serviced it before selling it! :)

it was astonishingly good value, body, helios lens, 2x films & strap for £30.00, loads of fun for peanuts!
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dont you mean three £3.00 ???:LOL:
 
It's certainly a 4 letter word.:LOL:

Personally I love it,just picked up a dusty old Nikon F90x for under £100 with speed grip, shoots at 4.5 frames a second, and with the right filmstill produces results digital just cannot.

Both mediums are fantastic: aint we lucky to have both!
 
donutagain said:
MrNutt said:
cheers for the replies folks! the shutter's working perfectly and the shop even said that its covered by 3mth warranty as they serviced it before selling it! :)

it was astonishingly good value, body, helios lens, 2x films & strap for £30.00, loads of fun for peanuts![/QUO


dont you mean three £3.00 ???:LOL:
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what shop was this. My son's in a school where they still teach good ol' photography/dark room techniques, and the new class students need to get kit from time to time.

Ek.
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MrNutt said:
The Camera body is a Zenit EM (Olympic model so I'm guessing its from 79-80?)
Click to expand...

Willid1 said:
Hi There

I had one of these as my first foray into SLR's, but more like 1976.
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The EM was out in the early-seventies but a special edition was launched to coincide with the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
I'm guessing that I had the EM from around 1973-74 and had changed to a Pentax K-1000 by the time the Olympic version materialised,

Bob
 
Ekso, I got my camera (lenses and film) from a local independent retailer, I love his store as its just like I imagine camera shops should be, lots of point of sale stuff from over the years, loads of interesting curio tucked into shelves and a really helpful owner, to the point that he's offered to look over my negs and tell me where I may (read most probably) have made any mistakes and how to improve on it :)

The contact details are as follows:

Peter Gilbert Cameras
31 Havelock Street, Swindon, Wilts
Tel: 01793 535396

I hope I've not broken any forum rules by posting the details, feel free to edit my post (or tell me to!) if I have :)
 
btw I'm having a whale of a time with the "AK47", I'm really enjoying the 100% manual aspect, my only irk is that the Fuji colour film doesn't stop like the Ilford film when its finished and being (slowly) rolled back in, rather it quietly winds back in which no doubt will annoy anyone who develops it just as much! :D
 
MrNutt said:
btw I'm having a whale of a time with the "AK47", I'm really enjoying the 100% manual aspect, my only irk is that the Fuji colour film doesn't stop like the Ilford film when its finished and being (slowly) rolled back in, rather it quietly winds back in which no doubt will annoy anyone who develops it just as much! :D
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Eh?

You wind back until you feel the tension ease - that's enough - so what are you on about ??? :thinking::thinking::thinking:

:shrug::shrug::shrug:

DD
 
well when I turn the dial to "rewind" and then get the little dial/knob to pop up, then turn the thing for ages, during which time the dial/knob gives inconsistent feedback, from feeling like its engaged to feeling like its doing nothing then it feels engaged again, I don't have this problem with the Ilford film which winds back giving a consistent feedback all the way until it stops. *STOP PRESS* I think the penny just dropped, I think I need to ensure that when I first load the film I need to ensure that I feed it into the "far side" of the camera winding spool (2 o'clock if looking at the bottom of the camera), then when I "rewind" the film it should stop rather than wind back into the cartridge without any resistance?
 
DiddyDave said:
Eh?

You wind back until you feel the tension ease - that's enough - so what are you on about ??? :thinking::thinking::thinking:

:shrug::shrug::shrug:

DD
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These newbies eh Dave..... :shrug:

Every time I wind back the little lever flicks out of my fingers several bloody times :LOL::LOL:

What Dave means is when winding back there is tension on the lever, when the film disengages from the take up spool the tension stops and becomes easy to wind ,stop straight away when this tension ceases and the film will not have all gone back in the cartridge.
 
towershot said:
These newbies eh Dave..... :shrug:

Every time I wind back the little lever flicks out of my fingers several bloody times :LOL::LOL:

What Dave means is when winding back there is tension on the lever, when the film disengages from the take up spool the tension stops and becomes easy to wind ,stop straight away when this tension ceases and the film will not have all gone back in the cartridge.
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Indeed - :LOL:

It's simple OP

If you loaded it correctly, and lifted the rewind knob exactly right, you can feel tension on the rewind until it leaves the spool you threaded it into, then it goes slack and you've done all the rewinding you need

Anything less and either it's broke - or you loaded it incorrectly

Or - no idea :D

DD
 
exactly!

you'd think you'd feel resistance on the little round knob (no lever here, just a tiny round knob) and you do with the Ilford B&W film but strangely on the fuji films I've used its always felt slack or with light resistance, the wind on works perfectly during operation and its not escaped me once! ;)

I think Towershot probably sneaks into my house during the dead of night and brakes it every time I load it with colour film! ether that or DiddlyDave has tampered with the body of my camera to reject film without me noticing whilst I was driving around and the camera was sat on the backseat of my car! :D
 
MrNutt said:
or DiddlyDave has tampered with the body of my camera to reject film without me noticing
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Thats a very unfair accusation, Diddy shoots Nikon.......he wouldn't know how to operate a proper camera:LOL:
 
Eric Mc said:
Thats a very unfair accusation, Diddy shoots Nikon.......he wouldn't know how to operate a proper camera:LOL:
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:eek::eek::eek: Swine :LOL::LOL::LOL:

And to MrNutt - I have no idea what's happening then m8 - I had this camera for about 8 years before upgrading, and it never failed me once

Soz if my comments haven't helped - but otherwise, I'm stumped :shrug:

DD
 
Don't worry Dave its most likely to be a problem between the camera and my shoes! :D
 
Eric Mc said:
"Olympic" means it has the aerodynamic properties of a discus so that you can throw it slightly further when it plays up :LOL:;)
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You've really got to lean into it and get your whole body to rotate to get the best distance from the throw:LOL:
 
Body rotation is still the key(y)
 
MrNutt said:
...and figuring that I'd actually like to "learn to shoot properly" rather than end up reliant on the machine.
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This is an interesting statement.. how does shooting with a film camera help you learn to shoot "properly" any more than shooting with a digital camera?
 
Film doesn't, but a camera without any auto-exposure modes at all (such as the Zenit EM) does.

FWIW I'm another who had one as his first proper camera. Went to a Nikon F801 about 5 years ago but in some ways honestly missed the physical side - that was a very tactile camera. The Zenit sat on a shelf as an unneeded backup until it and a large pile of lenses and expired film went to an art student last year. Hope they enjoy learning on it.
 
Film teaches you how to load film and to be mindful that you only have a limited number of exposures before having to re-load more film. If you're doing your own developing, then you learn that as well. You're also restricted to ISO, so once your film choice is made, you're restricted to just two exposure settings. Autofocus is another difference - most film cameras need manual focusing and is something I'm constantly forgetting especially with medium format and the waist level finder...

Digital is easier and better in a lot of ways. I'll always use my digital camera for paid work because it's a lot more difficult to screw up ;)

But if I'm not being paid to shoot, out comes the film - it's more fun.
 
.... and dont forget to close that aperture ring down before you press the shutter.......aaah film.........., oh, hang on, what am I dreaming about, I have to go and buy 5 rolls of mono film today. Still use it. :naughty:

Allan
 
Even non paid shoots might be better with digital though, i was thinking that medium format would be good to take on holidays abroad, but cause of all the variables and ease of screwing up shots, i wonder if its worth taking the risk. Does anyone here take theres halfway round the world....
 
My first non fixed lens was theZenith e preset pre 1975. The black and white pics off this were brill. I also invested in a lenningrad light meter, both were the toughest bits of kit i had at that time before i packed till last year.Wish i still had both but i still have the 135 telephoto that i now use on my Chinon.If its in good condition have some great fun with it , well worth the effort if my memory serves me right.
 
dicko said:
My first non fixed lens was theZenith e preset pre 1975. The black and white pics off this were brill. I also invested in a lenningrad light meter, both were the toughest bits of kit i had at that time before i packed till last year.Wish i still had both but i still have the 135 telephoto that i now use on my Chinon.If its in good condition have some great fun with it , well worth the effort if my memory serves me right.
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OMG - I went from my EM to a Chinon too :eek:

CE-4 I believe it was - absolutely fab little camera (y) lasted 19 years (yep 19!!!) before it broke and I started buying Nikon gear

Ah - the good old days of film :love::love::love:




NOT - I much prefer digital, it's the format I wanted before it even existed!

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
OMG - I went from my EM to a Chinon too :eek:

CE-4 I believe it was - absolutely fab little camera (y) lasted 19 years (yep 19!!!) before it broke and I started buying Nikon gear


DD
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I went from a Zenith B to a Chinon CP7 - which I still have. Whizzy little camera with lcd and lots of buttons. I bought a CE-5 a few years ago from a boot sale or somewhere. I didn't use it much. On taking my first pic I discovered that the self timer was permanently on, so I had to hold and wait for every shot.
 
blinkerz said:
Even non paid shoots might be better with digital though, i was thinking that medium format would be good to take on holidays abroad, but cause of all the variables and ease of screwing up shots, i wonder if its worth taking the risk. Does anyone here take theres halfway round the world....
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I don't leave the house without my film camera, never mind around the world.
Folk managed to take holiday film shots in far flung places for a hundred years before digitalz.
If you aren't confident enough, or feel some photos are just too important to risk on film, you'd best take digital and pray it doesn't fail in some way or another.
Personally, I take them both, I use film for the scenes that it is good at and digital for the things that film would have difficulty with, for instance, film is my "go to" for scapes and scenics, digital for stop action zoomery, they both do everything else reasonably well. :)
 
joxby said:
I use film for the scenes that it is good at and digital for the things that film would have difficulty with, for instance, film is my "go to" for scapes and scenics, digital for stop action zoomery, they both do everything else reasonably well. :)
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What an interesting comment :thinking:

Have we had a thread to discuss when each medium is best suited & why ???

Over to you Joxby to start it :clap:



And yes of course peeps took tons of film everywhere with them, I saw a Lichfield programme once where he had a whole tea-chest of same batch 120 film for consistency on a Unipart calendar shoot in Africa

DD
 
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